The present application relates generally to a door for an automotive vehicle.
For passenger comfort, it is desirable to reduce the wind noise within an automotive vehicle. Thus, engineers attempt to seal holes in the automobile body. This includes sealing holes in the vehicle doors.
For example, it is desirable to seal around a vertical locking rod in the side doors. But employing such a seal makes the door assembly process more difficult since the inside vertical locking rod typically must be assembled to the door latch before latch installation due to poor access to the latch after it is installed. Thus, unless a more costly cable is used instead of a rod, the vertical locking rod must be either connected to the latch and then routed through a sealing grommet hole in a sheet metal door inner panel, or routed through the sealing grommet hole in the door inner panel and then connected to the door latch. Both operations are difficult because the assembly plant operator must handle both the rod and the latch inside the door cavity by reaching in through an access hole in the door inner panel. The difficulty of the installation can be further aggravated if some window regulator components are integrated with a rear glass run channel.
In addition, it is desirable to route the vertical locking rod so that it does not interfere with a water deflector—or a seal for the water deflector—that covers the access hole after assembly. And this needs to be accomplished without interfering with the movable window, its guides, and the widow regulator assembly that moves the window between its various positions.